On Saturday, 17 October, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stood before the graduating cadets of the Egyptian Military Academy in the New Administrative Capital and asked his parliament for permission to answer a request nobody had yet made. As Al Jazeera reported, he called for an emergency session of lawmakers to authorise him to approve any Saudi request for defence assistance, should Riyadh ever send one.
The whole speech hung on that condition. Sisi said he hoped parliament would “convene in an emergency session to give us this authorisation, if it is requested of us”. He said Egypt would “carry out any measure to protect” the kingdom, following the guidance of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And he acknowledged the constitutional machinery that stood between the promise and the deed: “I know that this matter requires the approval of the Egyptian parliament.”
Then came the line meant for listeners beyond the parade ground:
I am not speaking in order for us to fight anyone or attack anyone. I am speaking only for defence.
The machinery moved quickly. According to The National, the House of Representatives announced it would meet on Sunday. The paper also quoted the president insisting that “we are not looking for a role to play”. The reported remarks gave no detail on what form Egyptian help might take, how large it would be or when it might come, and Sisi did not say that the kingdom had asked.
The airport at Riyadh
The reason for the haste lies some 1,600 kilometres from Cairo, on the runways of the Saudi capital. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been striking Saudi airports and oil facilities, mostly on the outskirts of Riyadh, though the strikes appear to be moving closer to the centre of the city. Al Jazeera put the toll from attacks on King Khalid International Airport this month at 14 dead and more than 300 wounded, and said airports in Dammam, Abha, Jazan and Najran had also reportedly been hit. The National gave a different figure: 17 killed and more than 300 injured in attacks on Riyadh’s main airport last week, with 20 strikes on it since early October and the airport shut down completely.
Whichever count is right, these are people killed at an airport. Before the strikes, the crown prince had already pledged a firm response to threats. Riyadh accuses Tehran of encouraging the Houthi attacks; Iran denies it and has offered to help bring the conflict to an end.
The southern gate of the canal
Before the airports, there was the sea. In September the Houthis took Yemen’s Red Sea coast, and with it a large measure of control over the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the narrow southern entrance to the waters that lead to the Suez Canal. Days later, at a meeting in Cairo, Sisi backed Mohammed bin Salman’s call for safe navigation in the Red Sea, and the Egyptian presidency declared the security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf “an integral part of Egypt’s national security.” The Saudi answer so far has been a plan to retake the strait that rests on Yemeni forces who lost it, and this month Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government launched a full offensive to win back Houthi-held territory.
Analysts call Egypt a natural partner here, and the reasoning is plain. The canal’s revenue depends on ships passing through the Red Sea, and Cairo has no wish to see Iran and its allies take command of the region’s maritime traffic. A canal, one might reflect, is worth only as much as the sea that feeds it.
Egypt would not be the first to come. In August, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a defence pact, the Mecca Alliance for Defence, and this month the three agreed to activate deterrence measures and send forces to the kingdom quickly. Cairo is lining up behind them. Its uniforms are not yet in Saudi Arabia, but the paperwork is underway.
Permission in advance
There is something old in a ruler asking for a mandate before the need arrives. A reader may take it as reflection, not reporting: a vote secured in advance spares a leader a debate at the hour of decision, and it tells an ally, and an adversary, that the debate has already been settled. Sisi framed the step as pure defence. The vote he asked for is open-ended.
Until 2030
The same speech turned to another question of time. Sisi confirmed that he would not try to stay in office past 2030. “The period leading up to 2030 will be the end of my term as president of the state, if I am still alive,” he said, calling the decision “completely settled”, saying there would be “no discussion” and that the constitution “would not be touched.” The amendments of 2019 lengthened presidential terms from four years to six and allowed him to run again in 2023. His current term ends in 2030, and he cannot run again.
Arab News reported that he described the years before then as a time to prepare a new generation of leaders, with the Military Academy training hundreds of future officials, ministers and presidential candidates. Some of them were sitting in front of him as he spoke, newly commissioned, while he asked parliament to let him send soldiers to defend another country.
On Sunday the House of Representatives is due to meet. Whatever it grants will be granted in advance, for a request that Egypt’s president did not say had been made.